An Oregon State Police trooper assigned to the Portland area received the department's lifesaving award Thursday for preventing a woman from jumping off Wilsonville's Boone Bridge in February.

Trooper Jamison Goetz received the Harold R. Berg Lifesaving Award during a ceremony at OSP's Portland Area Command Office.

"It is apparent that Trooper Goetz placed himself in harm's way to make sure somebody he didn't know -- who needed medical and psychological help -- was stopped before she could jump to almost certain death from the bridge," said OSP Superintendent Richard Evans.

Lt. Gregg Hastings, OSP spokesman, said Goetz was sent on Feb. 16 to investigate a report of a woman dancing in and out of traffic in the bridge's southbound lanes. When he arrived, the woman sat on the guardrail with her feet dangling off the bridge, about 75 feet above the Willamette River.

To keep the situation from escalating, Goetz stayed in his patrol car and spoke to the woman through the car's public-address system, asking her come back off the guardrail and onto the highway. Meanwhile, he coordinated response by several other police officers, keeping them from approaching the woman while she was in such a volatile state.

The woman eventually got off the guardrail, but sprinted across the bridge's southbound lanes to the northbound side, where traffic still was moving. Goetz ran after the woman, jumped the center barrier and tackled her. He then took her into protective custody with the help of two other troopers.

The woman later told troopers she had used methamphetamine and was trying to "fly."